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San Jose Sharks’ Joe Thornton, right, fights with Toronto Maple Leafs’ Nazem Kadri during the first period of an NHL hockey game Thursday, Jan. 4, 2018, in Toronto. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)

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The future Hall of Famer’s orange-and-gray beard was the talk of the NHL Thursday night after Kadri inadvertently yanked out a chunk of it during a fight just two seconds into the Sharks game against the Maple Leafs in Toronto. A picture of the recovered facial hair in backup goalie Aaron Dell’s glove went viral on social media.

After the game, Kadri insisted that the facial haircut was accidental, telling reporters, “I thought I was a hockey player, not a barber.”

“It’s just so big,” the Sharks alternate captain said of his beard. “He was probably trying to grab for the collar of my shirt and, obviously, there’s a lot there.

“I needed a little trim, so it saved me some money. I needed to thin it out a little bit.”

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At this point, Thornton is used to getting his beard yanked, tugged and caught in things. It’s just part of the day-to-day lifestyle of walking around with an enormously-bushy beard. That might be why he didn’t feel any pain as Kadri pulled the hair right off his face.

“It didn’t hurt or anything for some reason,” Thornton said. “It must be because my four-year-old sometimes grabs it, so I’m kind of used to it.

“You comb it out and it gets knotted and stuff, so I’m used to having hair get pulled out. Putting on the jersey — the jersey’s pretty tight, so you’ve got to pull it out of the jersey sometimes.”

Thornton wasn’t even aware of what had happened until he and Kadri had fallen down to the ice after they’d exchanged a few punches near the red line.

“When I was on the ice, I looked down and I saw his hand, and I thought, that’s my hair,” the Sharks alternate captain said. “I remember thinking, okay, that’s interesting.”

Dell eventually gave the clump of hair to head athletic trainer Ray Tufts, who put it in a plastic bag, which received the label, “for the boys!”